Business.govt.nz

Tax: Pay-as-you-go for better cashflow

New proposals will give small business owners a pay-as-you-go option for provisional tax — income tax by another name. This is one initiative in a package of proposed tax changes aimed at reducing the stress of tax compliance for businesses.

Here’s what the changes mean for your business:

Pay-as-you-go

Inland Revenue calls this the accounting income method. It’s proposed that if your business has a turnover of less than $5 million a year, you can choose to pay tax every two months on income earned. In the past, you had to pay provisional tax in three instalments, based on an estimate of your likely tax bill for the coming year. However, you can still choose to pay in three instalments. The new pay-as-you-go option for provisional tax takes effect from April 2018.

Accounting software

If you choose the pay-as-you-go option, you can set up your accounting software to calculate your tasable income every two months and tell you when to pay. You can also pay your taxes through your accounting system. Using software systems will help cut the time you spend manually calculating and paying your tax.

Case study

Avoiding the cash crunch

“Pay-as-you-go is a much better option for provisional tax,” says Dunedin-based small business owner Ravi Vohara, of Pharmacare Specialty Ltd. The changes could help small businesses avoid the sort of cash flow crises that force so many to close in their early years, he says.

"They pay no tax in their first year, then in their second year they must pay two years' tax. If they haven't saved enough money at that point they can have real problems paying it all"

Removing use-of-money interest reflects the fact that so many young businesses struggle to track their cash flow to make three large payments, he says. “I have been penalised in the past, and rightly so. But the current interest charge can unfairly burden small businesses. The new system is much fairer.”

Accounting software can make it easier for small businesses to see how tax affects their business, he says. “It can serve as a dashboard to tell businesses how they’re performing, alerting them to potential cash flow problems.”

Read more about the full range of business tax proposals aimed at making tax as easy as possible, many of which take effect from April 2017, and have your say on how the proposals will work in practice.